Loved this article from the Billings Gazette. Apparently Japanese beetles are finding Billings, Montana to their liking. They eat grass and roots and roses and look like they’re trying to establish themselves as a new successful invasive on the Western Frontier. How do they get here? Via convenient international air links.

As Denke explained it, the beetles have a strong attraction to jet fuel and will fly into the open doors of cargo planes that are being loaded or unloaded at airports. They will stay in the planes until they take off and land somewhere else, and when the doors open again they will fly out into the sunlight.

’tis indeed a small world. I wish I could travel so cheap.